Darcy da Mangueira (1937?-2008)

I just heard of the passing of Darcy Fernandes Monteiro, a.k.a. Darcy da Mangueira, on May 19th. I do not know much about this composer, or at least I didn't realize that I had heard so many of his compositions. He is said to have written over 300 songs. I recall seeing Darcy once at the Pagode do Nézio e Negão back in 2006, when I enjoyed a partido alto that he sang with the late Camunguelo, who passed away last December. I looked back at my journals to verify and, sure enough, I had made particular mention of him in my notes.

Looking into the newly named BetoVault, I found several recordings of his songs and some with Darcy himself as interpreter. I would like to share a recording from the late 1970s, my favorite period of classic samba albums, as I'm sure you've already noticed. This is a live recording, from the legendary Bar Suvaco de Cobra (The Snake's Armpit), a watering hole that hosted some of the best rodas de samba this side of the equator. This was the period when many recordings were recreating the roda in the recording studio, to maintain the integrity of samba in its most traditional format. For more on this see my posts on the epic Partido em 5 sessions.




"É manhã" (Darcy da Mangueira)
from the album Roda de Samba Volume 3 (1979)

Salve Darcy da Mangueira!